Black Moon Rising (DarkLife Saga)

by Ronnie Massey

  “At least she chose someplace deserted,” Tamerlane said, as he looked around at the deserted park, “Maybe.”

  “And one that’s almost iron-free. That's twice we've tracked her to wooded areas,” Stryfe added, “If the humans were right about her appearance, she's severely weakened. That attack on your family’s building cost her dearly.”

  “This just may work,” Fazion said. “She’s probably resting. If we can find her before she gathers her strength, we stand a good chance at destroying her.” He turned to Irulan and tipped his head. “Valeria might not have to play bait after all, Sister.”

  Irulan’s green eyes sparked with power, and she flexed her fingers. “Then by all means let’s find the bitch and get this over with,” she said. Her old-world-accent was thicker than it normally would be if the situation were different. My wife meant business.

  That was my cue. I stepped into the center of our gathering and waved Tamerlane to my side. “Alright, people,” I said, keeping my voice low, “we divide into teams; each team needs at least one wolf and one Manticore.”

  “Between groups we are totally dark,” Tamerlane added. “No radio contact, no text. Don't speak any louder than necessary, amongst yourselves. Val and I are in contact with the other two groups. If something comes up we’ll know. Valeria, Vedo, Constantine, Irulan and I, will monitor everyone’s thoughts. We’ll all know the instant she’s found.”

  “And whoever finds her first, remember, do not engage her until you’ve got at least two more teams at your back,” I spoke up. Everyone agreed and soon we were off. I ignored the butterflies in my stomach as I watched Irulan head toward a darkened footpath, leading a team, with Marcus in wolf form, beside her.

  “The princess can take care of herself, Vampire,” the Manticore in my team offered.

  “Tell me something I don't know,” I countered, “knowing that isn’t going to stop me from worrying about her. She's my wife.”

  “Worry is a distraction, and distractions will get us killed,” he said, “I willingly serve my king, but I’m not ready to die because your thoughts were elsewhere.”

  Fuck. Where was my focus? Thade’s furry body bumped against me, and I shook my head. It was time to get my head in the game.

  I pushed everything aside but the task at hand and willed my features into shifting. If I were standing in front a mirror, I would have seen the whites of my eyes chased away, until both of them were completely black. I released my control and retracted the films that covered them. The darkened area became crystal clear. I pulled back my lips as fangs dropped into position and flexed my now, talon-like fingers. I ran a hand across my forehead, slightly saddened by the loss of the thick ridges that once graced it when I shifted to feral. The Fae blood erased them.

  I took a deep breath, taking in the scents that rode the air around us and looked down at Thade. She had definitely been here, but it was faint. “That way,” I pointed, toward a path that led to the lake that sat at the far end of Freedom Park. Thade, nodded his fur covered head and we took off, in the opposite direction of the one Irulan had headed in.

  The night around us was colder and quieter than it should have been at this time of the day. It was still fairly early, and there were no signs of humans anywhere, no joggers or old men making their way back to their cars after a day spent fishing. I trained my ears on the world around me and didn’t even hear crickets chirping in the distance.

  “I’m suddenly feeling a deep sense of deja-vu,” I said softly, “Anybody know how to detect a dampening net?”

  “There is no magic at work, darkling,” the Manticore whispered. “The Banshee’s presence has driven away all life. She's still here somewhere.”

  Goody-goody-gumdrop, just what I wanted to hear. Aside from Thade and the Manticore, there were two of my family’s deadborns bringing up the rear of my little search party. We moved through the woods at a slow pace, checking every seeable inch of area around us, high and low, for signs of movement. Every broken or bent branch was investigated. If Thade or I caught so much as a hint of the Banshee’s scent, we adjusted our route accordingly.

  I reached out and touched my brothers’ and Irulan’s minds, checking their progress and informing them of ours. So far only Constantine and I had picked up any traces of the woman. Constantine’s scent trail was fresher than the one that we followed. For a moment, I considered back-tracking and consolidating groups, but a whine from Thade changed my mind.

  He pressed his nose to the forest floor and sneezed. I dropped to one knee and took a deep breath. “This is fresh,” I almost gasped. I turned to tell the others to begin searching, but they had already beaten me to it. I watched them fan out, looking for any type of cover the Banshee might be using.

  They searched under low-lying bushes and behind large boulders. They scoured the tree tops and branches and trudged through drainage ditches. There was a small, one room, bathroom nearby, but it was empty. While they looked, Thade and I searched by nose. In the end, none of us came up with anything.

  I caught a twinkle of moonlight reflecting off of water, through a patch of trees and pointed. “Does she have some type of affinity for water maybe?” I asked the Manticore, grasping at straws. “This is twice she's chosen places with water to hold up in.” I stood, ready to relay my theory to the others, but he shook his head no.

  “I don't think it’s an affinity,” he answered. “In the FaeLands, gaining unhampered access to the elements is as simple as walking out one's front door. No matter what abilities a Sidhe may possess, we’re all strengthened by nature and its connection to the Ether. Here, where iron is so prevalent, she's clinging to these small oases.”

  Thade sneezed and pawed at the spot where her scent was fresh. The wind shifted, and the Manticore stiffened. “She isn’t manipulating the elements,” he said more to himself than us, “rather she's using them to her advantage…there’s a storm coming.”

  “What do you mean, storm, as in weather or shit storm?”

  “Rain, Princess, a storm, is coming.”

  “I don't think so. The weather reports haven’t called for rain in weeks.”

  “Shh,” he whispered, as he turned back and forth, muttering as he searched the area. For what, he'd yet to say, but whenever he found what it was, he looked at me and touched the side of his head.

  “You say another team found a fresher trail?” I nodded, and he frowned. “I believe the Banshee has anticipated your line of thinking, darkling.” He dropped to one knee and pressed a hand to the ground as he looked up at the star filled sky.

  “She’s been watching us, waiting for the teams to be divided. Now that we are, she will attack. We need to regroup.” He stretched to his full height and pointed in the direction that we came from. “If she were counting on us searching near the lake, then she will pick the group that is farthest away from this position and use the coming rain to cover her scent.”

  That was Irulan’s group. Panic seized my chest, and I reached out to her. I got nothing; no response, no indications that her mind was active at all. “It’s too late,” I choked and threw open the shields to my mind. I tried to locate Marcus and the others, but again was met with silence.

  “I’ve got nothing, Thade,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even. With no one to latch onto, we'd have to find them the old fashioned way, by tracking. Thade shot off into the forest, searching for his uncle’s scent. I slipped into a flash; moving faster than I ever had before, pulling off my leather jacket as I ran. Once I was free of the constricting fabric, I rolled my shoulders and began to unfurl my wings. The leathery appendages ripped my shirt as they stretched toward the sky. With Thade covering the ground, that left air surveillance to me.

  I spared one glance for the rest of my party to make sure they were headed in the right direction, before I felt for my brothers. What I found, when I touched their minds, made my blood run cold. Constantine and his group were under attack. There were no outward indications of the atta
ck; no sounds of a fight, or cries of pain; and no call for help from my older, hard-headed, grief stricken brother. I should have seen this coming. I cursed and focused my mental attention on Valerian, the only person besides Irulan, that it took no effort to contact, while I tracked Thade below.

  “Vedo!” I screamed inside my twin’s mind. “You’ve got to get to Constantine!”

  “I’m on it,” was the only reply I got. I knew he would snag Tamerlane on his way to Constantine’s position. With that taken care of, I focused on the world below me. I raked my eyes over the ground, looking for any signs of Irulan, Marcus and their group. The deadborns on the ground raced across the terrain, never once losing sight of me.

  I beat my wings, cutting through the air, covering hundreds of feet in less than a minute. Still there were no signs of Irulan or anyone in her team. My panic levels were through the roof. I felt the thread-bare control over my emotions that I’d been desperately clinging to, begin to give. One worse-case-scenario after another began flashing before my eyes. Just as my imagination was on the verge of winning, Thade howled. He found something.

  I whipped my wings back and entered into a dive. Tree branches and thorns slapped me in my face as I dove through the foliage, but I paid them no mind. I had to find her. I was a few feet away from the ground before I threw out my wings to slow down my descent. When I touched down, I hit the ground running, drawing my wings into me as I went.

  “Ire,” I called, out as I ducked under a branch. Now that I was on the ground, I could smell Irulan’s pomegranate and strawberry body wash, all around me. But I could also smell blood. I rounded a tight turn and ended up in a small clearing.

  I found them as the first drops began to fall. Irulan was lying on the ground, still as death. There were fine streams of blood oozing from her ears and the corners of her eyes. “Oh god, oh god, please baby be okay,” I gasped and slid to my knees beside her. I gathered her into my arms and breathed a small sigh of relief. Her heart was beating. But my relief was short lived. For a split second, I turned to locate the others in her group; scanning the area for bodies.

  The deadborns were nowhere to be found. Thade was next to Marcus’s still body; his face etched in agony as he forced the fastest shift that I’d ever seen. Marcus, the toughest alpha I’d ever met, was still in wolf form, unconscious, with dark blood caked around his nostrils and covering his muzzle. She'd taken out an entire group of Extras without so much as a sound and moved on to the next. From the looks of it, neither Irulan nor Marcus knew what hit them.

  “Ire,” I called, and ran a hand down the side of her face. She didn’t move an inch. I gave her a soft shake, hoping that that would do the trick, but she didn’t wake. I pulled back and watched the slow, steady rise and fall of her chest. She was alive, but whatever the Banshee did, had knocked her out cold.

  “Come on, baby,” I said, as I pulled her closer, “Wake up for me.” Still I got no response. I tried rubbing her face, kissing her, shaking her head up and down, and in a last ditch effort, tickling her. Nothing I tried, worked.

  Even Thade’s deep moans of pain less than a foot away weren't enough to rouse her. “You’re starting to scare me, Ire,” I told her silent body over a clap of thunder. “I need you to wake up for me.” All out of options, and scared shitless for my wife, I threw my conscious away from me, reaching for my twin. My concentration was so shot that instead of touching his mind, I leapt into it.

  The images in my vision became a mirror image of Valerian’s. I saw vampires and werewolves being hurled through the air into trees and each other. Tamerlane was crouched in front of Constantine, keeping the melee from reaching our fallen brother. I heard Valerian grunt as he vaulted out of the path of a falling body and the ground with a thud.

  The world flew by in a blur as he jerked his head to watch a group of Manticores drop from the sky. A good many were shifted into creatures of legend; griffins and phoenixes. His line of sight was pulled upwards, and my brother gasped. There, dropping through the trees was a large, green-scaled dragon.

  He looked around the field that they were in, and when he realized the creatures decent would place it right on top of him, Valerian scrambled away from the immense dragon. Despite being afraid, he marveled at the iridescent, saucer-sized scales that covered its body, and the marbled wings that kept it afloat.

  Unlike me, Valerian had never seen Irulan in her dragon form, so the sight of the mythic creature, took his breath away. He also had no idea that he dragon that he was watching, was Fazion. It had to be. Not many Sidhe could claim a dragon as their animal form. Since Ire was a dragon, it was more than likely a family trait that her cousins also shared.

  I looked through my brother’s eyes, as a griffin got close enough to rake its thick claws through the Banshee’s arm and then everything went black.

  “Focus, darkling,” The Manticore ordered, pulling me back inside my own head. I blinked and shook my head, again aware of my surroundings and Irulan that I was clutching to my chest. I exhaled and turned to stare at him.

  “How long was I gone?”

  “About five minutes or so,” Thade answered with a voice raw from shifting.

  “I was beginning to think that the same fate that ills the princess had claimed you also.” The Manticore admitted with a huff. “I don't think I can spare the energy to revive one of you, much less two.”

  I looked from him, to Irulan and cocked an eyebrow. “You mean like Stryfe did for Fazion back at my family’s building?”

  “Exactly,” he confirmed. “Whatever she did to repel the Banshee used her stores. Unless someone shares with her, the only way she's going to wake up, is to return to the FaeLands. We need my liege-.”

  “I can do it,” I said, cutting him off and leaving it at that. Fazion was busy, and I wasn’t about to risk losing the one person that could talk me through the power transfer. Because if he knew that his king was actively participating in the fight against the Harbinger, I had no doubts that he would leave me and Irulan, high and dry, to go to Fazion’s aid.

  “I’m not sure that’s wise,” he said after a few seconds of thought. The gleaming metal segments of his armor scrubbed together and screeched, as he dropped to one knee and held a hand over Irulan’s chest. “The princess needs a strong influx of Ether to awaken her. I’m not sure that your body is capable of providing what she needs.”

  I swallowed a snarl and pushed his hand away. “I’ll be the judge of what I’m capable of. Just tell me what to do.”

  While I may have swallowed my snarl, Thade didn’t bother trying to contain his growl of anger. “Do as she says, Faerie, we’re running out of time.” He pushed away from Marcus, stood and rolled his shoulders. Thade was naked as a blue-jay. If it was anyone else, I don't think the Manticore would have considered them a threat. But Thade’s lack of clothing didn’t take away from the daunting figure that he was. The tightened fist at his side, his wide-legged stance and squared shoulders, let anyone that saw him, know that he meant business.

  The Manticore took one look, reluctantly nodded his head and pressed a hand over his heart. “You have to reach inside, to where the heart of the FaeLands rest and will it to her. But you must be careful not to overload her senses.”

  What is it with the Fae and their mystical, Yoda, rain-man talk? Why couldn’t they ever give cut and dry instructions? “So you're basically telling me to gather my power and instead of forming an energy-ball or lightning bolt, somehow direct it through my mouth and hope I don't blow my mate’s head off.”

  He looked at me with a deep frown and nodded. “As I said, maybe it’s best that we wait for my king.”

  “We don't have that kind of time,” I whispered as I lowered my lips to Irulan’s. I focused on the cache of energy inside me and imagined slowly opening the virtual door that I used to keep them in check. Whenever I tried to access my Fae powers I usually pulled too much, too fast. Needless to say, this couldn’t be the case now.

  I ignored the u
rge to rush into the process and little by little, the warmth that I’d come to associate with the Fae energy, began to fill me. Unsure of what else to do, I initiated a kiss, pressing my lips to Irulan’s and carefully parting them with the tip of my tongue. Her soft, full lips were warm to my touch, but that was the only familiar sensation.

  They didn’t move against my own, nipping here and there-tasting, as she did whenever we kissed. There was no passion behind the intimate touch, no conveyance of the love that we felt for each other. I felt like I was kissing a freshly fallen corpse.

  The cache of energy faded as I pulled away from her and choked back a sob. “There’s got to be another way for me to do this. I can't…she feels so…” I couldn’t find the right combination of words to describe what I was feeling.

  A loud piercing-howl cut through the air, demanding to be heard. It was a call for help from one of Marcus’s wolves. The sounds of the struggle had finally reached us. Thade stiffened at my side, and Marcus finally began to stir. His ears perked at the sound, and his leg began to jerk as his body fought its way back to consciousness.

  “I’m not trying to rush you, Val,” Thade said, “But that didn’t sound good. We need to move.”

  He was right of course. We should have already joined the others, but I couldn’t leave Irulan unprotected.

  “Go ahead without me,” I told them. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  I fully expected the Manticore to take off, but to my surprise, he stayed. “We leave as one. After all, you are central to our plans.”

  I nodded and took a deep breath. Irulan needed something from me that I had no idea how to give. At this rate, half of my family was going to be dead before I got to throw the first punch.

  “Fuck it,” I sighed, and lifted my arm to my mouth. My fangs dropped as I pulled back my lips. If I couldn’t give her the raw energy, maybe my blood would work.

  “I don't think-,” The Manticore began, but I cut him off.

  “Neither do I but I don't know what else to do,” I said, before I slid my teeth into the flesh of my wrist. I sucked at my arm until my mouth was filled with the metallic tang of my own blood.